Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) Spanish, Circa 1900 Version of Don Quixote. In Spanish. This book is titled El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha, written by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, first published in 1605, the title means The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote from la Mancha, this version was published by Saturnino Calleja around 1900, and it is considered to be the first modern novel and one of the greatest novels of all time. 

Size: 9 X 6 1/4 in. 

#6492 . 

The plot revolves around the adventures of a member of the lowest nobility, an hidalgo named  Alonso Quijano, who reads so many chivalric romances that he loses his mind and decides to become a knight errant - caballero andante - to revive chivalry and serve his nation, under the name Don Quixote. He recruits a squire, a simple farm laborer named Sancho Panza, who brings an earthy wit to Don Quixote's lofty rhetoric, and as Sancho’s spirit ascends from reality to illusion, Don Quixote’s declines from illusion to reality. 

The book is bound in red cloth, with wonderfully elaborate gilt titles and gilt decorations on the spine and front cover, blank endpapers, a frontis portrait of the author, the title page is in red and black letters and says the book was illustrated by Manuel Angel and published in Madrid by Saturnino Calleja. It is undated, but probably done around 1900, the title page is followed by a copy of the original title page from 1605, the text is 822 pages long, counting the six-page Index at the rear (Indice), the text is in Spanish. and the full name of Manuel Angel was Manuel Angel Alvarez, a Spanish illustrator who lived from 1855 to 1921. The front cover also has Biblioteca Perla at the top, which means the Pearl Library, Published in Madrid is lightly stamped under the publisher’s imprint on the title page, and the top edge is gilt. 

The book measures 9 x 6 1/4 inches wide and is in very good condition, with a tight binding and clean pages and text and the gilt is bright. There is a paper adhesion on the front paste-down and light rubbing on the heel and light wear at the crown, and overall a very attractive edition of Don Quixote de la Mancha. It is hard to find this edition listed on line - we found only two listed on the rare book website we use - and they run from $80 in poor condition to $230 in very good condition, like the one offered here.